Tax preparation software programs (hereinafter referred to as “tax programs”) are available from various vendors that assist users in preparing accurate Federal and/or State income tax returns and other tax forms. These tax programs may guide the user through income, property, sales, or other types of tax return processes for a governmental entity or agency (e.g., Federal, State, county, city, district, or other municipality) step-by-step, and may automatically perform necessary tax preparations in accordance with user-entered data input, forms, schedules, and tax data, tables, and formulas stored with or coded into the program. Personal and/or business tax programs may be provided. In addition, both personal and professional versions of these programs may be offered. Professional versions may be used by tax preparation professionals to prepare various tax returns for multiple customers. Further, these tax programs may be used to prepare annual taxes, quarterly taxes, etc.
Tax programs typically include electronic tax documents, the various forms, schedules, worksheets, etc. needed to prepare and file tax returns, which may be stored and accessed as electronic documents. For example, Federal tax return documents that may be provided may include, but are not limited to, 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040NR, and 1040X forms. In addition, various tax forms and schedules for various States may be included. These electronic tax return documents may be graphically presented by the tax program to the tax preparer on a display device (e.g., a computer monitor). Typically, the tax program will provide a user interface with various user interface elements (menus, dialog boxes, etc.) and user-selectable interface items (menu items, buttons, controls, text entry boxes, etc.) whereby the preparer may access the electronic documents as needed and enter and/or modify data on the various tax documents using one or more data entry/cursor control mechanisms, such as a keyboard and mouse. Typically, these electronic documents are presented on the user interface as templates that, when partially or completely filled out, may be “saved” for the particular taxable entity for which the documents are prepared. Typically, the preparer will enter the necessary data and information to the documents via the user interface, and, when done, access the user interface to direct the tax program to complete the preparation of the tax documents. When done, and possibly verified, the tax return is complete. The completed tax return may be saved, may be printed, or in some cases may be electronically transferred to one or more specified destinations (e.g., via e-mail or other mechanisms used to electronically transfer data).
Instead of or as an alternative to entering the necessary data and information directly to the electronic tax return documents (e.g., directly to a 1040 form), some implementations of tax programs may provide an input mechanism whereby the user inputs the necessary data and information into input fields on data entry displays presented to the user by the tax program. Data and information entered by the user via the input fields may then be automatically transferred into the appropriate locations on the tax return documents. The tax program may perform any necessary calculations using the entered data and information, and possibly data and information from other sources such as previous tax returns, to generate appropriate calculated values for certain fields of the tax return documents.
Federal and State tax laws tend to change frequently. Thus, tax program vendors typically release new versions of their programs that are configured specifically to meet the current Federal and/or State tax requirements. For example, a vendor may release a version of their tax program that is specifically configured to prepare annual income tax returns for the year 2004, and another version of their tax program that is specifically configured to prepare annual income tax returns for the year 2005.
In some cases, historical tax return information or data for the user (e.g., tax return information or data from a previous year) may be used in preparation of a current tax return. In addition, some tax return information or data may be transferred from one current electronic tax document to another current electronic tax document. For example, information or data from a current Federal 1040 form may be transferred to a current State tax return form.